MARCIN KORNAK'S ‘BROWN BOOK’ FOCUSES ON HATE CRIME IN POLAND: LATEST ISSUE OF ‘NEVER AGAIN’ MAGAZINE
11 June 2014
Marcin Kornak was the founder of the 'NEVER AGAIN' Association back in 1996 and the editor-in-chief of the 'NEVER AGAIN' magazine until he passed away on 20 March 2014, aged 46. Despite his disability, he was very active and a key figure in the Polish anti-racism and anti-discrimination movement. He was also well known as a poet and lyricist for several independent rock bands. Marcin prepared the latest edition of the 'NEVER AGAIN' magazine which has been published recently.
The cover artwork was specially designed by Wilhelm Sasnal, the renowned painter and longtime 'NEVER AGAIN' supporter whose works have been displayed in many of the world's leading art galleries.
The newly published issue of 'NEVER AGAIN' contains contributions from Poland's top intellectuals and it covers a wide range of topics concerning the struggle against racism and antisemitism in Poland and across East-Central Europe. For example, the far right's hostility to Holocaust sociologist Zygmunt Bauman is analyzed in depth in several articles. Bauman's lectures were disrupted by far-right groups and football hooligans in several Polish cities last year as well as at Manchester University on 9 June 2014.
The issue also contains the latest part of the 'Brown Book', the hate crime register which lists over 160 xenophobic incidents which took place in Poland in 2013 and in the first months of 2014. It is a selection out of over 500 such incidents documented by the 'NEVER AGAIN' Association in that period.
In the last weeks, 'NEVER AGAIN' received numerous letters of condolences from all over the world. Special tributes were paid to Marcin Kornak's commitment and achievements by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and by former President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski who is also the chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.
The 'NEVER AGAIN' Association continues to conduct educational and awareness-raising activities on a daily basis. Over the last week, 'NEVER AGAIN' team members' speaking engagements have included a conference on the European far right at the University of Oxford European Studies Centre (St. Antony's College), a Polish-Hungarian debate on the far right held by the Bronislaw Geremek Centre at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, a lecture for members of the European Business Women Forum at Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Sciences (Collegium Civitas), a presentation at the Intercultural Studies Institute of the Jagiellonian University (Krakow), and an international workshop for Humanity in Action programme participants at the newly-founded Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw.
Plans for the next days include trainings for law enforcement and security officials at the former Euro 2012 stadium in Wroclaw, anti-racism workshops for prison inmates and staff in the Olsztyn province, and a Polish-Ukrainian anti-racism presentation at a high-level EU meeting in Brussels.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent anti-racist educational, research and monitoring organization established in Poland in 1996. In 2009, in cooperation with UEFA and the FARE network ‘NEVER AGAIN’ set up the East Europe Monitoring Centre documenting racism and xenophobia across the region.
English-language summary of the new issue of 'NEVER AGAIN' magazine.
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